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DDoS Attacks Are Back (and Bigger Than Before)
,----[ Quote ]
| Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)
| attacks are certainly nothing new.
| Companies have suffered the scourge since
| the beginning of the digital age. But DDoS
| seems to be finding its way back into
| headlines in the past six months, in thanks
| to some high-profile targets and, experts
| say, two important changes in the nature of
| the attacks.
|
| The targets are basically the same --
| private companies and government websites.
| The motive is typically something like
| extortion or to disrupt the operations of a
| competing company or an unpopular
| government. But the ferocity and depth of
| the attacks have snowballed, thanks in
| large part to the proliferation of botnets
| and a shift from targeting ISP connections
| to aiming legitimate-looking requests at
| servers themselves.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/186903/ddos_attacks.html?tk=rss_news
Microsoft Warns of IE Zero-day Used in Google Attack
http://www.pcworld.com/article/186957/iezeroday.html?tk=rss_news
IE Exploit Used to Launch Chinese Attacks on Google
,----[ Quote ]
| Early speculation focused on the Abobe
| Reader zero-day exploit as the source of
| the Chinese attacks on Google and other
| corporations earlier this week, but Adobe
| may be off the hook--or at least share the
| blame. Microsoft has determined that an
| unknown flaw in Internet Explorer was one
| of the holes used to launch the attacks
| which have led to Google threatening to
| shut down its Chinese operations.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/blogs/bizfeed/186970/ie_exploit_used_to_launch_chinese_attacks_on_google.html?tk=rss_news
If Google Leaves China, What Happens to YouTube and Android?
,----[ Quote ]
| Here's an interesting scenario: If Google
| does stick to its guns and leaves China
| because the country continues to insist on
| censoring web search results and blocking
| websites, will it also pull Android
| cellphones from the Chinese market?
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/186907/google_android_youtube_china.html?tk=rss_news
Ballmer: Microsoft Will Stay in China
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft does not plan to follow Google's
| lead in pulling out of China, the software
| giant's CEO told news outlets on Thursday.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/186964/ballmer_microsoft_will_stay_in_china.html?tk=rss_news
Recent:
More Sources Claim Chinese Government Involvement in Cyberattacks on Google, Others
,----[ Quote ]
| More sources are now claiming the Chinese
| government is behind the recent cyberattacks
| against Google and 33 other Silicon Valley
| companies, reports security firm Verisign
| iDefense. The attacks, revealed yesterday
| via a posting on Google's official blog,
| were hacking attempts on the technology
| infrastructure of Google and other major
| corporations in sectors that included
| finance, technology, media and chemical,
| said Dave Girouard, president of Google
| Enterprise.
|
| [...]
|
| While July's attacks were detected early and
| were largely uneventful, December's attacks
| did find some success. In addition, these
| same sources claim that the files in both
| cases share similar characteristics. For
| example, both attacks used a backdoor Trojan
| in the form of a Windows DLL, and both share
| two similar hosts for the command-and-
| control (C&C) communication. In layman's
| terms, if the cyberattack was a ground
| assault during a war, the C&C would be the
| general barking out the orders. Also in both
| incidents, the IP addresses used for C&C are
| in the same subnet and only six addresses
| apart from each other. That means both
| attacks are likely to have been instigated
| by the same entity and may imply that the
| recent victims' technology infrastructure
| has been compromised since July.
`----
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/sources_claim_chinese_government_involvement_in_attacks.php
A new approach to China
,----[ Quote ]
| Like many other well-known organizations, we
| face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a
| regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a
| highly sophisticated and targeted attack on
| our corporate infrastructure originating from
| China that resulted in the theft of
| intellectual property from Google. However,
| it soon became clear that what at first
| appeared to be solely a security incident--
| albeit a significant one--was something quite
| different.
|
| First, this attack was not just on Google. As
| part of our investigation we have discovered
| that at least twenty other large companies
| from a wide range of businesses--including
| the Internet, finance, technology, media and
| chemical sectors--have been similarly
| targeted. We are currently in the process of
| notifying those companies, and we are also
| working with the relevant U.S. authorities.
|
| Second, we have evidence to suggest that a
| primary goal of the attackers was accessing
| the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights
| activists. Based on our investigation to date
| we believe their attack did not achieve that
| objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to
| have been accessed, and that activity was
| limited to account information (such as the
| date the account was created) and subject
| line, rather than the content of emails
| themselves.
|
| [...]
|
| These attacks and the surveillance they have
| uncovered--combined with the attempts over
| the past year to further limit free speech on
| the web--have led us to conclude that we
| should review the feasibility of our business
| operations in China. We have decided we are
| no longer willing to continue censoring our
| results on Google.cn, and so over the next
| few weeks we will be discussing with the
| Chinese government the basis on which we
| could operate an unfiltered search engine
| within the law, if at all. We recognize that
| this may well mean having to shut down
| Google.cn, and potentially our offices in
| China.
`----
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html
Related:
Bots rule in cyberspace
,----[ Quote ]
| USA TODAY REPORTS that on an average day, 40 per cent of the 800 million
| computers connected to the Internet are bots used to send out spam, viruses
| and to mine for sensitive personal data.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/17/bots-rule-cyberspace
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